


From Cardassia, With Love

by faith_girl222 (faithgirl)



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Holodecks/Holosuites, James Bond References, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-07
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-04-05 14:43:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4183740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithgirl/pseuds/faith_girl222
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 4x09 Our Man Bashir, Garak takes an interest in James Bond</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Cardassia, With Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crowdog66](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=crowdog66).



> Written for crowdog66 for the DS9 Holiday Card Exchange.

Despite the unusually high stakes of Garak's first encounter with Julian's spy fantasy in the holosuite, he found himself thinking about this Earth idea of espionage for weeks afterwards. Julian's suit and carriage in the role of the jet-setting playboy cover, and the cunning spy on the other side, were practiced; obviously a long running fantasy, Garak felt safe assuming. A lunch he considered bringing it up, explicitly asking Julian for an invitation into the fantasy, but that didn't seem in keeping with the tone of the kind of espionage the fantasy relied upon.

Garak discovered there were many iterations of this spy, each a bit different from the last, the story twisting to fit into the spaces of current political worries. Earth may have become one nation under one president, but the regional areas still held to some ancient cultural icons, and this was clearly one of them. Julian's holosuite program was only one among many, with different Bonds and different political backgrounds. He ordered one, and downloaded some of the original novels, and set about finding the materials appropriate for an Earth suit, c. 2012.

He'd given Julian Cardassian spy novels to read, but he'd enjoyed them just about as well as the higher brow classics Garak had started with. A quick review of Flemming's work, and Garak was willing to admit perhaps there was a certain mutual cultural barrier, if this was what Julian thought made a good spy novel.

\---

Julian was still on edge from his fantasy being made into a life-or-death scenario, but fortunately whenever his thoughts strayed to the program, the memory of Garak was a welcome distraction. The image of Garak changing into a tuxedo lingered, so different from the clothing Garak normally wore. Not that Julian had anything against Cardassian fashions, but it wasn't usual for Garak to fit so ... seamlessly into his fantasies. 

Julian considered scrapping the holosuite program altogether; it wouldn't have Garak in it next time, and it would be hard to forget how close they came to losing nearly the entire operations staff. It was hard to still have a taste for those particular scenarios with that thought in the back of his mind.

The first time he had lunch with Garak, after, their routine wasn't the same. Garak was somehow both more reserved and more talkative, if that was possible. Julian was sure there was something Garak was avoiding, but with him that could be just about anything from Cardassian state secrets to something about the food that Jualin was eating that a replicator engineer had let slip during a fitting. There was never any guarantee it was about him, or them, or really even anything Julian knew anything about.

\---

Garak was in Quark's that night, sitting oddly close to the entrance to the holosuites. They didn't have meal plans, but he was sitting alone and waved Julian over. There was a garment bag hanging over the back the chair, maybe he was meeting a client here?

"Ah, Julian," he said, "your timing is remarkable." He had the kind of twinkle in his eye that Julian was always slow to figure out, ever since their first meeting.

"Strange place to meet a client," he tried to say neutrally; he didn't know why he was being so on edge, except that everything seemed odder than normal with Garak.

"But an excellent place to meet if the garment is meant for use in the holosuites." Before Garak could continue, Quark bustled over. "Are you two ready? You're already ten minutes into your booking, and since neither of you is Worf, I'm still charging you for the entire time."

"Excuse me?" But Quark was already gone, and now Garak had that maddening smile.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? I found a much better program about your Earth spy, and made some of my own ... improvements."

"Including something you've tailored?"

"It pays to be properly dressed for going undercover."

"As what?"

"The spy, of course; you need a few pointers as to the Cardassian way of doing things." As Garak led him to the holosuite, Julian was sure it wasn't just Garak's way, that something more overt was being communicated to him.

"Which kinds of things?"

"All kinds of things, doctor, as any jetsetting Cardassian playboy should know."


End file.
